Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: Colorado-Avalanche

As a youngster in Calgary, Colorado’s Ryan Smyth grew up watching the heated Battle of Alberta between the Flames and Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s and then got to experience it as a member of the Oilers. Though admitting it’s a close call, he goes with Edmonton-Calgary as the nastier feud than Detroit-Colorado. “That’s tough,” Smyth admitted. “Back in the day, we saw a huge rivalry (between the Flames and Oilers), but over the course of the mid-nineties, these guys, Detroit and Colorado had some wars. It’s comparable, but I think it’s a little different in Canada.”

In the roiling cauldron that was Joe Louis Arena, where fans were alternating covering their eyes or leaping to their feet, Detroit goalie Chris Osgood was oblivious to the stress.

His so-called fun peaked with 8.4 seconds left in game when John-Michael Liles had the game on his stick and 20,066 fans had their hearts in their mouths.

However, Osgood plucked the puck and a victory out of mid-air to give the Detroit Red Wings a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche Thursday in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal at Joe Louis Arena.

If the Red Wings continue to outshoot their opponents by double digits in every game, there’s almost no chance they’ll lose a best-of-seven series.

The only thing that could stop them would be an out-the-world goaltending performance, which will require Theodore to either get well soon or Quenneville to make a very gutsy decision and for Budaj to reward him for it.

This is the bargain Francois Giguere made with the devil when he re-signed Peter Forsberg, all right. When Foppa is in the lineup, all is right with the world. You think he’s finally turning the corner on his health and things will stay good for a while and then - pow - right in the stomach comes the next injury.

In the Avs’ case, it came right before Game 1 tonight, and although the Avs tried to put on brave game faces and act like nothing had happened, you could tell it killed them. And this, as I’ve said before, is the problem with having Forsberg around….

I don’t anticipate Forsberg back for Game 2, and if the Avs lose again as I anticipate partly because of that, they’re done, even if Foppa comes back for Game 3.

When I asked Shanahan about the rekindling of the bitter Red Wings-Avalanche rivalry, of which he played a major part while in Detroit, the veteran laughed.

“I thought it was pretty interesting, especially the fact that they went and got (Adam) Foote and (Peter) Forsberg back. I thought maybe Detroit would maybe try to swing a deal for me and Larry Murphy,” he said.

“I’ll watch a little bit, but it’s kind of in the past and I don’t really focus on that anymore. What everybody forgets about our rivalry with the Avalanche 10 years ago is that we were usually No. 1 and 2 in the league. Everybody talked about how much we hated each other and how dirty the games were and that was all true. But what made it most interesting was it was the two best teams in the league trying to do that to each other.”

[Joe Sakic:] “I was joking around that a lot of these kids were in elementary or junior high when that was going on. But they’re going to see what it’s like firsthand pretty quick, I’m pretty sure.”

So, first things first: If this upcoming series develops a sharp edge, it won’t be because of history, but because of the present—the high stakes and overheated emotions of today—not because anyone got psyched the night before by looking at footage of Patrick Roy duking it out with Mike Vernon or Chris Osgood at center ice; or Foote’s running battle with Brendan Shanahan; or even Lemieux’s infamous check of Kris Draper into the boards at the old McNichols Sports Arena in 1996 and Darren McCarty’s subsequent vengeance.

History will be an issue because of the infectious undercurrent, and even then not necessarily because it makes sense.